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Robocup Success!

23/08/2017

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​Students showing off their awards and trophies. Well done students.

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Last week a group of
our students took part in the annual Robocup challenge. The robotics
students started building and programming their robots
in February. They've used the time to learn new skills and to try
various ideas to see which works best. The competition has three
challenges, so our teams picked one each to focus on.

Our "Cup Destroyers" team took on the Cup Clearer challenge.
They had to build an autonomous robot that could push ten
plastic cups out of a small marked area in less than
one minute. The team made a very reliable robot that worked
well at school, but were surprised when they saw that
the competition cups were much larger than the ones we practised
with. They made some quick changes to the shape of their robot,
and came away with an outstanding 3rd place at the end of the day.
Well done Cup Destroyers!

"Team Flash" went for the Pursuit challenge. Their
robot had to race against another school's robot following a black line
around in a circle. Our robot was quick and managed to catch a few of the
opposition later in the day, but some early troubles staying on the
line meant that we didn't win anything for this one. Great effort Team
Flash!

And last, our
"Rescue Rover" team took the Rescue challenge. This was the
hardest event, and one our school has struggled with in the past. The
robot had to follow a black line around twists, over bumps and over a balancing
see-saw before "rescuing" a tin can by pushing it out of the
area. The course is different every year, and even changed throughout the
day, so it was impossible to know exactly what to expect. However, our
team refined their program after each attempt and we walked away with trophies
for first place! A very proud moment for us all. Well done Rescue Rovers!

They also hosted a new event this year to let students design a new tile for
next year's Rescue challenge. Zanick Greyling (5B) had one of the
two designs chosen by the judges, winning him a Lego prize to take home. Well
done Zanick!

Our teams are now preparing for the First Lego League Competition which will be
held at the end of the year. Thank you to our Science Teacher Mr Elms and Mrs
Gane for your countless hours helping and teaching these students. Well done to
all students, involved not only at Robocup but also for your incredible efforts
throughout the year to get your robots ready. You all did Minimbah incredibly proud!